John Helms and Eric Hart, CPA's for the Auditing Firm of Wendling, Noe, Nelson and Johnson LLC presented their yearly audit report and financial statement at the Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems Board of Trustee Meeting Monday evening.
Eric Hart started the report by thanking the hospital administration and the employees for all their help during the audit process. He said they were happy to say they had no red flags to report that signified any significant problems. They did, however, have some suggestions for adjustments that they felt needed to be made.
Hart discussed the facilities monthly internal financial statements and the rules and regulations of the Medicare Program. He said about 60 percent of the hospital's income is from Medicare reimbursement but this is reasonable for a Critical Access Hospital. He acknowledged the problems the hospital had when they converted medical records to the electronic medical record process at MediTech system and were unable to send out billing notices for a while plus the fact their servers went out. He feels they will more than likely still be able to collect the private pay receivables and most of those will ultimately be paid. While this problem caused a hiccup in your ability to collect bills in a timely manner it looks like your collections are pretty strong now, he said.
The auditors warned there is going to be a limit on the Medicare reimbursement status in the future that could be as much as one hundred thousand dollars difference in the funds the hospital will receive. When asked if they thought Obama Care would have a negative or positive effect on accounts receivable Helms stepped in to say there are a lot of unknowns since more people will be receiving Medicare. Most of the accounts their firm works with are not going to be helped by these issues. They make too much money to qualify for Medicade and not enough to apply for assistance. "The Affordable Healthcare Act this is going to create a lot of conflicting pressures and a lot of unclear ramifications. I do think the law will ultimately be modified which will straighten some of this out in time," he said.
In closing, Hart said the records did not show much change in liabilities this past year but they did drop some. No new debts were added on in 2013 and a sizable amount of long-term debt was shown to be off the balance sheet this past year. Where MCHHS is on their balance sheet shows they are in a good position. "You don't make money on Medicare but it does help you a least break even as a Critical Access Hospital. Management is doing a good job of keeping a lid on expenses," Hart told the board.
Eldon Koepke, Chief Financial Officer, said as of August 21st the hospital has attested to Stage One of the electronic medical record. It is estimated the hospital will receive approximately $700,000.00 of the funds that were spent on the electronic medical record, he said. They are presently looking at the different Software choices as they start on Stage 2.
In the absence of David Dick, Hospital Administrator, No Quality Improvement report was given this month. CFO Koepke gave a progress report on the Solomon Valley Hospice progress at the Public Library. They are going to be finishing up this next week and are looking at new different types of carpet for the facility. They are also looking for different funding projects to raise money for the new carpet.
Under New Business: CFO Koepke reported they are looking at purchasing four new beds for the observation area, as the ones they have are very uncomfortable. They have $24,000 budgeted to pay for this but it will actually cost closer to $27,000 if they do all four at the same time. With more comfortable beds in this area they could put more patients in for observation if they have over 25 patients at one time. The board approved the purchase of the four beds.
Curt Frasier, Board Chairman announced the Board signed Years Of Service Award Letters for the following employees:
Phyllis Oetting, HR (35 years); Teresa Gasper, Acute Nursing (25 years); Renee Walter, Radiology (20 years); Christy Stevenson, Acute Nursing (5 years); Rosann Kelly, Acute Nursing (5 years); and Tresa Kelly, Acute Nursing (5 years).
Eldon Koepke, CFO, gave a financial and Budget Reports and other statistics in comparing this past month to others in this same year. No executive session was deemed necessary and the meeting was adjourned.